Speaker

Contacts

China today looms larger than ever in myriad aspects of Australian life —
economic, political, strategic and cultural. Already it is plain that this must have implications for our relationship with the United States, as Australia seeks to balance its growing relationship with China and its highly–valued traditional links with America. This balancing act has become even harder under Donald Trump’s unpredictable presidency, with fears that he will swing between provocative assertions of American primacy in Asia on the one hand, and protectionist and isolationist ‘America First’ tendencies on the other. How can Australia best navigate this uniquely challenging strategic and diplomatic environment over the next few years? What goals can we realistically set ourselves for the management of these two critical relationships, and how can we best achieve them?

Gai Brodtmann was elected the Member for Canberra on 21 August 2010 and has extensive experience in the public, private and community sectors. In October 2016, Gai was appointed Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence. From 2013-16, she was Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence.

During her time in Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gai was posted to the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, did a short term mission to Jakarta, and served on the Middle East desk, where she worked on the normalisation of the relationship with Iran, the first Ministerial visit to Tehran in ten years and bilateral policy on Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.